As I sat in the House Gallery to hear the speech of Pope Francis, I wondered what was more unlikely: a Jesuit pope from Argentina or a pope addressing the U.S. Congress, lifting up Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton as examples of the best of American values.
I was honored to be the guest of Cardinal Donald Wuerl and Speaker Boehner at this historic occasion. It was almost surreal, a solitary figure in white standing before Vice President Biden and Speaker Boehner, two Catholic kids from Pennsylvania and Ohio, united in faith, divided by politics, both clearly moved by the moment. As I’ve said before, their generation heard that John Kennedy should not become president because he would take advice from the pope and now they lead legislative bodies that can only agree that they need advice from the pope.
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